Global Demand

Global electricity demand is increasing twice as fast as overall energy use and is expected to increase by more than 60% over the next 25 years. The traditional energy options, oil, coal, hydro and nuclear are all non-renewable and come with environmental price tags that are far too high. Some of these energy sources are contributing to the climbing CO2 levels that are affecting global climate and increasing ocean levels and must be reduced.

The energy available from the wind has been harnessed on a large scale for the past 30 years and is capable of providing a substantial percentage of the global electricity requirement. The drawback with wind energy has been that it costs substantially more than traditional energy sources and large scale production has only been economically viable with subsidization.

By 2020, the IEA’s New Policies Scenario suggests that total capacity would reach 587 GW, supplying about 6% of global electricity; but the GWEO Moderate scenario suggests that this could reach 759 GW, supplying 7.7-8.3% of global electricity supply. The Advanced scenario suggests that with the right policy support wind power could reach more than 1,100 GW by 2020, supplying between 11.7-12.6% of global electricity, and saving nearly 1.7 billion tons of CO2 emissions. [Global Wind Energy Outlook 2012]

Based on the most conservative estimate of an additional 300GW of wind turbine capacity at an estimated average cost for a LUX wind turbine of $1,000/kilowatt, the market is approximately $300 billion for new wind turbine installations.

There is also an emerging market for wind turbines that are expiring and need replacing. Reports are indicating that the original 20-year life expectancy is optimistic and that 12-15 years is more realistic. Based on this, over the next 15 years all of the wind turbines currently operating will need to be replaced. Based on an estimated cost for a LUX wind turbine of $1,000/kilowatt, this market is approximately $280 billion. It should also be noted that each conventional wind turbine can be replaced with up to 10 LUX wind turbines on the same amount of land, increasing the potential market for LUX turbines substantially. LUX wind turbines are advantageous in other markets as well. Once momentum is building in the wind farm market, other applications will be considered.